Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Paragraph: 57
The Government has committed to ‘levelling up’, but there remain stark differences in educational outcomes...
Conclusion
The Government has committed to ‘levelling up’, but there remain stark differences in educational outcomes in different parts of the country, which seem likely to be exacerbated by the differential impact of covid-19. Education is a part of a larger whole with regard to geographic inequalities. Without improvements to local job markets and infrastructure (including digital infrastructure), education faces an uphill battle to raise outcomes for disadvantaged White pupils in left-behind areas. Equally, creating opportunities is of limited use if education has not equipped local people with the skills to fill them.
Paragraph Reference:
57
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
34. Many of our attainment measures are broken down by region, local authority and local authority district and parliamentary constituency in the National Statistics. Institution level data is also available on the Compare School and College Performance website for Key stages 2 to 5, except for 2020 and 2021 due to the assurances given to schools about accountability for results achieved during these years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We will commit to investigating where further regional breakdowns can feasibly be added and endeavour to publish as much detail as possible. This will require discussions to understand the user needs. 35. We need to understand these user needs in more detail and also what is possible, balancing the usefulness of highly detailed data against the risk of disclosing details of individuals. In general, the more detailed the breakdowns that are provided, the greater the risk of disclosure and the more data that needs to be suppressed, limiting its utility. A further challenge will be considering whether statistics should be based on school location or pupil residency, and the feasibility of doing so at the different key stages. 36. As described in the response to recommendation 1, the statistics that are published are regularly reviewed to ensure they meet the needs of users. The statistics producers work closely with policy analysis and policy teams to ensure the statistics are aligned with policy developments. Further, we have introduced the Explore Education Statistics dissemination platform, which provides users with easier access to underlying data. We will look at how far our statistics break down by region and whether we could go further, for example what is the best proxy for neighbourhood. 37. The Department is fully committed to coordinating efforts with wider government and is inputting into the cross-government White Paper on levelling up.